Health Department employees say they were pressured to sign letter

NEW BEDFORD — Two Health Department employees say they were pressured to sign a letter sent to The Standard-Times supporting Health Director Brenda Weis.

JONATHAN CARVALHO

NEW BEDFORD — Two Health Department employees say they were pressured to sign a letter sent to The Standard-Times supporting Health Director Brenda Weis.

The sources, whom The Standard-Times is not identifying because they say they fear for their jobs, said two other Health Department employees carried the letter throughout the office last Friday asking people to sign.

If it simply had been circulated, "nobody would've signed it," one source said. "But two people went around asking us to sign it. They kept saying, 'Did you read the article? Did you read the article?'"

The letter was brought to employees on the same day a story in The Standard-Times reported Weis had voided two staff warnings to the owner of a house neighbors say they feared was a health risk.

The same source said Weis "is doing good for the department" by getting funding, but that she favors some employees over others. "Favoritism, that's her downfall." The source said Weis could be a good manager, "but she listens to the wrong people."

"When someone tries to explain something to her, she kind of brushes them aside, like 'You're not good enough for me to listen to you,' " the employee said.

A second source in the department also said the director "has favorites" and she "doesn't hide it."

Mayor Jon Mitchell on Monday said the department has improved "light years" since Weis became the department's fourth director in six years.

The department has been in turmoil since the 2006 replacement of then-director Robert Davis. That year, the Board of Health fired Davis under pressure from then-Mayor Scott Lang. The board then hired Thomas Gecewicz as health director.

In 2007, the board then fired Gecewicz from the position after learning he left a four-month stint as a health director off his resume. Later in 2007, the board hired De Souza, who in 2012 took an "early retirement," with Mitchell describing the office being in "mutiny" during her tenure. Weis took over in 2012.

Mitchell said Monday he had found no evidence that employees were pressured to sign the letter. Asked if he thought employees would willingly skip putting their name on a letter supporting their supervisor, the mayor did not answer directly, instead repeating that "We didn't find any indication that people were pressured."

Mitchell encouraged employees who felt there was a poor work environment in the department to contact the mayor's office.

"There is a strong feeling, one that I share and the Board of Health share, that Brenda Weis has done an enormous amount of good in her short time in office," Mitchell said.

The mayor ticked off grants that Weis has secured for the city. Asked if grant-writing ability translates to supervisory or managerial capacity, the mayor said her initiatives are "not just a matter of grant-writing skills. It takes a lot of external and internal teamwork."

Board of Health Chairwoman Patricia L. Andrade said Weis has been "a great leader" and praised her ability in getting grant money for the department. She said Weis has created an environment of "individual responsibility" among staff, but while professionalism has increased in the department it is "not the pinnacle" and "still has a way to go."

Weis did not return two phone calls seeking comment Monday; nor did Board of Health members Athena Xifaras or Craig Longo.

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